Re-using Qualitative Research Data: a Personal Account

Paul Thompson

Abstract

This paper describes three experiences of reanalysing data. The first is the re-use of data I have collected myself, primarily the much-used dataset "Family and Work Conditions before 1918", collected in the early 1970s, and the extent to which this has created difficulties and gains. The second is a more recent project, published as Growing Up in Stepfamilies, in which we tried to interweave the potentially complementary strengths of life story interviews with data from a quantitative longitudinal cohort followed since 1958 by the National Child Development Study. The third is my current project on transnational Jamaican families, where I have been using parallel interviews collected by Mary CHAMBERLAIN and Harry GOULBOURNE.
URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0003277